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Ordo Malleus
The Ordo Malleus is the smallest and closest-knit of the ordos, and its Inquisitors are among the most knowledgeable, incorruptible and dangerous men and women in the galaxy. This is because the Ordo Malleus fights perhaps the most dangerous opponent that mankind can face---the Daemon. Daemons are creatures of the warp, servants of the foul powers that dwell there, and they are things of utter evil and madness whose very presence can only lead to corruption and death. The Ordo Malleus---the Daemonhunters---have the responsibility of battling these otherworldly horrors, risking their very souls to fight what might be humanity’s ultimate battle against the madness and malevolence of the warp. 'Overview' The fight against the Daemon requires the Ordo Malleus to share precious information among its Inquisitors and work together. Alone amongst the ordos, the Daemonhunters have a distinct home base---the Inquisitorial facilities on the moons of Saturn. This is where the Ordo’s great libraries of Daemonic lore are kept, its volumes carefully warded against the malevolent nature of the information they contain. The Ordo Malleus fleet is docked among Saturn’s rings along with its principal fortress, where new Inquisitors are trained and old ones impart the knowledge painfully acquired over centuries of facing the direst and most corruptive of threats. Ordo Malleus Daemonhunters tend to be very martially minded. They trust only themselves to execute a Daemon’s destruction and so go to battle armed with sacred weapons and armored with potent psychic wards. It is not unknown for Malleus Inquisitors to command whole armies from the front, charging into combat against Daemonic foes and inspiring the men around them to do battle with the most horrible of enemies. For this reason many Daemonhunters consider it their duty to be strong in both mind and body, great warriors with the finest battlegear as well as the strongest will. Some Ordo Malleus Inquisitors are investigators rather than fighters, hunting down Daemonic lore and searching for the signs of a Daemon’s presence, but when it comes to destroying this most heinous of foes, the Daemonhunters, with their sacred power hammers and blessed armor, come to the fore. The Ordo Malleus needs the most elite and dedicated Chamber Militant to combat Daemons, and it has them: the Space Marines of the Grey Knights Chapter. The Grey Knights are trained specifically to fight Daemons and they are perhaps the only force in the Imperium who can do so without eventually losing their souls. Every Grey Knight has some psychic ability, which is trained and honed until they can shield their minds against Daemonic corruption. Their power armor is imbued with potent anti-Daemonic wards and their distinctive Nemesis force weapons are designed to focus their psychic strength into formidable destructive power. The Grey Knights are based at their fortress-monastery on Saturn’s moon of Titan but the majority of them are elsewhere in the galaxy at any given time, forming the retinues of Ordo Malleus Inquisitors or fighting in the cutting edge of an army led by a Daemonhunter. The Grey Knights, like most chapters, have their own fleet and support staff but, unlike most, they do not act completely independently---they are commanded by the Ordo Malleus, who alone know how to use such a potent weapon as the Grey Knights to maximum effect. In all the history of the chapter, a Grey Knight has never become corrupted by the forces of the warp and the tombvaults of Titan are the resting places of some of the greatest heroes the Imperium has ever known. In spite of their skill and dedication, the Inquisitors of the Ordo Malleus are still ultimately mortal. One of the biggest dangers they face is the possibility of one of their own becoming corrupted and ending up in thrall to the very powers they once sought to destroy. Contact with Daemons provides a constant threat of corruption, especially given that the Ordo Malleus collects knowledge about Daemons to help find and destroy them. Such is the potency of the Daemon that even knowledge of them can be dangerous. The Ordo Malleus polices its ranks thoroughly for any sign that its members may be susceptible to corruption or even already in league (knowingly or not) with the Dark gods. Nevertheless, the Ordo Malleus must often hunt down one of its own before all their knowledge of Daemonic lore is used to bring forth the horrors of the warp instead of to destroy them. One Radical concept is the idea that the warp is a source of immense power that, if it could be harnessed, could usher forth a golden age for the human race. Some Radicals therefore search for ways in which Daemons can be controlled, binding them with complex forbidden rituals or entering into bargains with them in the belief that an Inquisitor’s willpower and knowledge will allow him to cheat the damnation that is sure to follow. Some Inquisitors research the warp-spawned sorcery that disciples of the Dark gods have in turn learned from Daemons, hoping to use the warp’s own magic against the Emperor’s foes. Still other Radicals seek to employ Daemonic weapons or other items of power, believing that it is the will of the user, and not the Daemons bound into the items themselves, that determine whether they are used for good or ill. For every Radical purged from the ranks of the Ordo Malleus, another dares to read a forbidden tome instead of burning it, or takes up a mighty Daemon weapon instead of destroying it. It is a cruel irony that while knowledge is essential for the Ordo Malleus to fight the Daemon, that same knowledge can become the Dark gods’ most dangerous weapon of all. 'Calixian Malleus' If it is true that Inquisitor Lord Caidin is a senior member of the Ordo Malleus, he does not appear to take a hand in his Ordo’s activities in the sector, at least not in any visible way. In order for Caidin to maintain the balance of power, he must remain neutral within the Calixian Conclave. If he were seen to be involved in the operations of one particular Ordo, it might compromise his position. Instead, Lord Caidin acts on behalf of the Ordo Calixis on a galaxy-wide scale, leaving the details of their mission in the sector to lesser members. The Ordo Malleus within the Calixis Sector maintains a relatively stable, if practically invisible, organizational structure established many centuries ago. The Ordo Malleus Calixis is ruled by a body known as the Masters in Council, a gathering of Inquisitor Lords of the Ordo serving in the sector. It appears that membership in this highly secretive body is not permanent, nor are its numbers maintained at any particular level. Its members gather in secret, hiding their identities, so it is said, even from their fellow Council members. Legend states that the reason for such secrecy is because the Masters might be forced by circumstance to issue such dire orders that millions of lives are lost and their own peers slain in their duty. The shroud of secrecy allows such decisions to be made without fear of reprisal, and much like the executioner behind his hood, the man is subsumed by his rank, and he remains free of responsibility. 'The Proctors of the Chamber' When the Masters in Council issue an order, it is to one of the Proctors of the Chamber. Each Proctor is an Inquisitor Lord or veteran Inquisitor, and is the convener of a cell of Throne agents, generally a loose association of servants of the Ordo Malleus well-used to working and fighting alongside one another in the eternal battle against the enemy beyond. Depending on the scope of the Masters’ orders, the entire Chamber may take to the field as one, combining their retinues and household troops into a force the size of a small army, or a single Proctor of the Chamber may be tasked to carry out the order. When the Masters give an order, it eventually falls to a Proctor’s Acolytes to carry it out no matter the cost, even though they may never know that their master is a member of the Chamber. 'Holdings' The Ordo Malleus Chambers operating in the Calixis Sector are secretive in the extreme, and aside from their holdings within the Tricorn Palace, own no Imperial property. Within the Tricorn Palace, entire levels and chambers are given over to the use of the Ordo Malleus, and what goes on within them withheld from those outside the Ordo. In truth, secrecy is so important to the Ordo’s mission that the Masters in Council long ago forbade the use of these places for anything other than the most trivial of matters, preferring to hide their activities in the furthest reaches of the sector, far from the eyes of even the other arms of the Inquisition. The Ordo Malleus maintains several major bases across the sector, and many smaller ones. No single member of the Ordo, not even the Masters in Council, knows of the existence of every single one, ensuring that even if one Master is corrupted, the organization will not be fully compromised. When Masters, Proctors, and ordinary Inquisitors spend time in the field, they are each able to make use of a handful of the Ordo’s facilities. The largest are military bases fortified with thick armor and potent energy shielding and armed with a fearsome array of weapons, while the smallest are little more than hidden safe-houses disguised within hive cities and feral settlements across the sector. Similar to the majority of Inquisitors, the servants of the Ordo Malleus Calixis maintain extensive private holdings. Even within a single Ordo or Chamber, conflict can erupt between the adherents of different creeds. Many Inquisitors find it necessary to withhold the details of facilities they have built for themselves in order to improve their chances of weathering the storm of internecine war. These holdings range from sealed habs high atop hive city spires to isolated manses deep in the wilderness. Some are staffed by the Inquisitor’s own household followers, and some host entire private armies. Few Inquisitors are foolish enough to imagine their peers are not aware of at least some of their holdings, but most seek to keep the existence of at least one a secret. 'The Seven Cloisters' The Seven Cloisters are the largest of the Ordo’s bases in the Calixis Sector. The details of the construction of the Cloisters are long lost, and not even the senior Masters know who built them or why. Each takes the form of a fortified tower constructed of an inert material so dark that it appears to be as solid shadow. The walls are laced with the same material used in the construction of ‘psyk-out’ weapons, making them utterly impregnable even to the most powerful of psychically gifted minds. Furthermore, every surface is inscribed with potent warding glyphs, ensuring that even the most cunning daemonic entities cannot cross the threshold. All of the Seven Cloisters are filled with endless dark passageways and chambers and their walls are adorned only with warding runes, spidery votive script, and mouldering purity seals. Inquisitors come and go from the Cloisters as they will, using the base for a time before moving on. Only the oldest of Ordo Malleus veterans reside there for any length of time, generally those wounded in body, mind, or soul in the pursuit of their duties and unable to take to the field. Sealed archives and repositories within them hold tomes and artefacts recovered by the Ordo in the course of their duties and deemed both too dangerous to be allowed to fall into any other hands and too potent to destroy. The deepest vaults contain the Ordo’s most holy relics---weapons, armor, and icons wrought in ages past to bring death to daemons. Other areas within the Cloisters contain excoriation chambers where heretics are interrogated and judged, as well as shielded vaults built securely and strongly enough that a bound Daemon could be held within, for a short while at least. The exact location of each of the Seven Cloisters is one of the Ordo’s closest guarded secrets, and even the most senior of Masters knows only of three or four. Most Proctors know of only one or two, while many ordinary Inquisitors may not be aware of their existence at all. If the duties of an Acolyte bring him to one of the Seven Cloisters, he is typically kept ignorant of its true location and purpose, lest the untried servant inadvertently betray one of the Ordo’s greatest secrets. The greatest of the Seven Cloisters, called the First Cloister, is located on the moon of an unnamed world on the outskirts of the forbidden Threnos Zone. The reason for the First Cloister’s location so close to such a dire region is an unknown even to the Masters of the Council. The Wandering Cloister is situated on an empty space hulk drifting in the open void coreward of Fenksworld, technically beyond the border of the Calixis Sector. The Lost Cloister is exactly that---its existence is referred to in various secret tomes, but it has never been located. Many servants of the Ordo Malleus have sought out the Lost Cloister, but to date none have succeeded in their quest. Some now believe the Lost Cloister never actually existed, and that it was created to distract the foolhardy and send them on long, hopeless quests where they could do no real damage to the Ordo’s operations. The Forbidden Cloister is located not within the boundaries of the Calixis Sector, but within the depths of the Maw, the passage through the Warp storm that leads to the Koronus Expanse out amongst the Halo Stars. This Cloister was built long before the passage was opened up to exploration. Since travel began through the Maw, it has earned a dark reputation amongst Rogue Traders and other travelers. Passage through the Maw is a perilous enterprise, and many vessels have foundered in its depths. Several have attempted to limp to the dead world which the Forbidden Cloister orbits, and been destroyed without warning by the Cloister’s defenses. While no official notices have ever been issued, it is generally held amongst voidship captains that this world is to be avoided even in the direst of emergencies. The Screaming Cloister is so called because it has fallen to daemonic incursion. Centuries ago, a Radical daemon hunter attempted to summon and bind a Greater Daemon, believing that within the warded fortifications of the Cloister he would be able to master it. Sadly, he was wrong, and the daemon and its servants consumed the Inquisitor’s soul and then killed every other person in the Cloister. The final act of the last Acolyte alive was to seal the Cloister from within, setting its wards so that nothing could escape. It is said that the screams of tormented souls can be heard resounding in the Warp for light years around. The location of the Screaming Cloister has been purged from many records, though the task is not yet complete. It is located on a barren planetoid in the empty reaches of the Markayn Marches. Treachery’s Cloister is situated on a rogue planet deep in the swirling nebulae at the center of the Adrantis Sub-sector. It got its name because the Puritan Inquisitors who lived and worked there were expelled through treachery by a cell of Radicals. Though the Masters of the Council do not yet know the truth, the cell follows the pariah doctrines of the outcast Phaenonites. This particular faction usually operates in secret, its adherents hiding behind a façade of loyalty to other factions and philosophies, and has been declared outright heretical the length and breadth of the Imperium. Should the Masters of the Council in the Calixis Sector discover that a Phaenonite cell took over Treachery’s Cloister, they are likely to mobilize every asset at their disposal to recapture it and kill its inhabitants. No one knows yet why the Phaenonites thought this Cloister was so important, but they are known to covet the most destructive of Warp-based technologies. If such items are to be found anywhere in the Calixis Sector, they will be kept in the secret vaults at the heart of one of the Seven Cloisters... The existence of the Ultimate Cloister is a secret known only to the most senior of the Masters in Council, for it is intended to serve as the ultimate sanctuary should the Ordo be brought to its knees in the Calixis Sector. Its walls are ten times the thickness of any other Cloister’s, and its void shields are powered by several dozen independent plasma reactors. In the event of a sector cataclysm, the most privileged of the Masters of the Council would make for the Ultimate Cloister, unseal its void-locked portal and close the doors on the sector until the age of doom has passed. Within a doomsday chamber, seven stasis caskets await, each able to hold a Master immobile and unaging for millennia. When the disaster has passed the machine spirits will awaken them, and they will open the portals once more to see what has become of the galaxy. There are many who claim that the Time of Ending is upon the Imperium and that the doom of the human race is coming. The Masters of the Council intend to outlive that doom and carry forward their mission to destroy the daemonic even should they be the very last humans left alive in the sector. 'Solitariums' Any holding used exclusively by the Ordo Malleus and smaller than the Seven Cloisters is called a Solitarium. The largest Solitariums are able to house several hundred Acolytes and servants and provide staging posts for the household troops of its Inquisitors. The smallest are little more than boltholes, thousands of which are scattered across the sector, though any one Daemon Hunter likely knows of no more than a dozen. The Solitariums were not established according to any grand plan; each was built to serve one Inquisitor’s immediate needs, and then was useful enough to be maintained by the Ordo. Some Solitariums are permanently staffed by oath-bonded servants or mind-scrubbed servitors, while others are coated in such thick layers of dust that they must not have been visited in centuries. Most contain stockpiles of weapons, foodstuffs, and other useful resources, while the largest contain mothballed battle tanks and even void-capable shuttles. An Inquisitor operating a cadre of Acolytes is likely to entrust them with the location of one or more Solitariums so that they may use their resources in the eternal battle against the archenemy. 'Incursions' The work of the Ordo Malleus is never done, and it can truly be said that entire sectors of the Imperium would have long ago fallen to daemonic incursions were it not for the constant vigilance of the Daemon Hunters. This is certainly true of the Calixis Sector, where a number of major incursions and countless smaller ones have been halted over the last millennium. Some worlds have been lost entirely, all record of their fate and current status purged from the annals of the Imperium’s history. Several regions of the sector are forbidden by Inquisitorial edict, and although few know why, some must surely be the result of catastrophic daemonic incursion. On several occasions, the fate of an entire world has stood in the balance. The Ordo Malleus has saved countless souls from eternal damnation, and subsequently purged all records and witnesses so that none now know of the courage and sacrifice of these most dedicated servants of the Emperor. This section presents an overview of five such Calixian incursions, details of which exist only in the sealed archives of the Calixian Conclave. Knowledge of these incursions is beyond even the most highly connected Inquisitor or the most obsessive savant, and Acolytes will only ever discover them if specifically entrusted such knowledge by a Master in Council. In all probability, the granting of this knowledge will prove the precursor to a do-or-die mission, and the Acolytes may wish they had never heard it at all. The Ordo Malleus is monitoring, as best it is able, many more potential incursions, and steadily mobilizing resources to combat them. The Ordo has taken an interest in the phenomenon known as the Tyrant Star, although very few members of the Tyrantine Cabal are drawn from the Ordo’s ranks. Others are currently engaged in preliminary operations against a threat emerging on the Spinward border of the Calixis Sector---that of the so-called Lord of Misrule. 'Unique Equipment' Malleus Power Armor Rare even among the Holy Ordos, this power armor is inscribed with pentagrammatic wards in the vaults deep below the Tricorn Palace. It is highly prized by those who expect to fight daemons in hand-to-hand combat, and an Inquisitor who allows an Acolyte access to it must have good (or desperate) reasons. The wards inscribed onto the armor harm Daemonic creatures who directly strike the wearer. The wards are temporary at best, some failing after a single encounter, but servants of the Ordos Malleus regard them as a retributive strike, hoping that with their death they might still weaken or slay such accursed creatures. This armor is Best Craftsmanship (already included in the profile). It is identical to normal Power Armor. Additionally, the power pack used in Ordo Malleus power armor allows it to operate for a week without recharging. Alternatively, it can be equipped with a power supply like that used by the Adeptus Astartes. If it does, it follows the Astartes Power Armor rules for damaging power armor. Any Daemon striking a character in Malleus Power Armor with its natural weapons takes 1d5 points of damage that ignores Armor and Toughness. All, AP 9, WT 180kg, Cost 25000, Near Unique Malleus Terminator Armor Tactical Dreadnought armor is more commonly called Terminator Armor. Inquisitors who don this armor become hulking defenders of the Imperium. There is no finer personal protection anywhere in the Imperium and the Inquisitor who maintains a suit of Terminator Armor for his personal use is not someone to be trifled with on the battlefield. Each suit of Terminator Armor is crafted by one of the most skilled Tech-Priests for a specific user. While the suit can later be adapted for another user, the process is extremely involved and can take years. Crafting a new suit of Malleus Terminator Armor can take decades. Each is given a distinct name and some even notice small quirks---a personality of sorts. Terminator Armor incorporates all the systems of standard power armor with several upgrades. Superior actuator and stabilization systems allow for Heavy and Mounted weapons to be fired one-handed. This also provides the Auto-Stabilized Trait and grants +30 to Strength instead of +20. The autosenses are part of a sensorium, which provides the same capabilities as an auspex. Terminator Armor's heavy layers of protective alloys can deflect even the heaviest bombardments. In addition, the built in refractor field on the Terminator’s shoulder plate serves as a ward capable of turning aside attacks from power weapons, melta fire, and even the baleful energies of the Warp. This protection provides a slightly better chance to emerge unscathed as a Refraction Field with a Protection Rating of 35. This field does not overload under normal circumstances. The massive frame of Terminator Armor is not without limitations. A Terminator cannot run, and the wearer suffers –20 to Agility and cannot dodge (but may still parry). Furthermore, in order for the Terminator’s frame to properly support, aim, and interface with weapons, they must be affixed by special couplings. Arming Tactical Dreadnought units is a laborious and sacred ritual that may only be performed by high-ranking Tech-Priests with the proper ceremonial accoutrements and facilities. The weapon configuration may not be changed under other circumstances. Any Daemon striking a character in Malleus Terminator armor with its natural weapons takes 1d5 points of damage ignoring Armor and Toughness. Terminator-Compatible Weapons: Termiantor Armour has a sturdy wrist mount that adds the Auto-Stabilized trait to any ranged weapon attached to it. The Following weapons can be used with Malleus Terminator Armor; Any Combi-weapons, Power Weapons, Power Fists, Nemesis Force Weapons, Thunder Hammers, Storm Bolters, Incinerators and Psycannons. All, AP 12, WT 400kg, Unique Grimoire of True Names The Ordos Malleus rivals the Administratum in its exacting approach to record-keeping. However, while the Administratum has access to entire planets of cogitators, information concerning the Ruinous Powers is rarely entered into a machine for fear of corrupting the machine spirits. Over the millennia, Daemon hunters have recorded vast amounts of information concerning cults, sorcerers, and the daemons they have fought. Within the Calixis Sector, following the death of the Seventeen Holy Martyrs in 385.M41, Lord Inquisitor Heydrich Tarlemon ordered that the Ordo Malleus of the sector was to collate all records regarding the names and activities of any daemons they had encountered. Over the centuries since then, these records have grown to encompass thousands of tomes and, as a result, scribes serving the Holy Ordos have been forced to reduce the information down to accessible, portable versions of the complete Nomina Daemonica Tenemus found within the Tricorn Palace on Scintilla. While large and cumbersome, a Grimoire of True Names is but a condensed account of the miles of bookshelves archived by the Ordo Malleus concerning the myriad cults and Daemonic adversaries that have plagued the Calixis Sector. Unfortunately, deciphering the records of long-dead Inquisitors is often as much luck as scholarship. The bearer of a Grimoire of True Names may use the grimoire to seek knowledge on any Daemon of note he encounters. Doing so requires two successes on a Hard (–20) Forbidden Lore (Daemonology) Test; each research attempt takes thirty minutes. This difficulty may be increased by the GM based on the amount of information the character already has about the Daemon in question. A successful result on the Test, combined with calling out portions of the Daemon’s True Name during any attack, allows the character to automatically confirm any Righteous Fury damage result when attacking the Daemon. Because of the mad nature of the Warp, the exact pronunciation and mental imagery of a daemon’s True Name will fade after 2d10+Intelligence Bonus days and must be re-studied. Grimoires are very rarely encountered outside of the hands of the Ordo Malleus. Ironically, outside of the daemon hunters they are most often found in the hands of Warp-cultists and jaded nobles who have taken them from fallen Acolytes or Inquisitors. Cost 5,000, WT 10kg, Very Rare Litany Micro-Beads & Vox Caster The corrupting songs of cults and the whispers of daemons are a constant threat to those carrying out the work of the Ordo Malleus. Many Inquisitors travel with a choir of Ministorum priests singing the litanies of the God-Emperor. Those desiring a more subtle approach while still gaining some protection from the aural assaults of heretics and blasphemous sorcerers often make use of a litany micro-bead. A blessed vox-caster within range (1 mile) broadcasts a constant stream of blessings, prayers and inspirational hymns. These signals cut out when the micro-beads are used to transmit, but while not transmitting, the wearers of these beads are considered deafened. There are three liturgical channels which may be chosen for a litany micro-bead; changing the channels requires a half action to perform the proper rites: *The Catechism of Devotion and Sanctity grants the user the benefit of the Chem Geld Talent while listening. *The Prayers of St Drusus grants the user the benefit of the Jaded Talent while listening. *The Petitions of Redemption grant the user a +10 bonus to Willpower Tests made to resist mind control. Cost 100, Scarce